Fantasy Baseball: Week 21 Closer Depth Chart

Senior Expert Shawn Childs provides his weekly, color-coded closer depth chart to help you win your Fantasy Baseball leagues!

Baltimore Orioles

After struggling for most of this season, Mychal Givens pitched reasonable well since taking over the closing role for the Orioles. Over his last five games, Givens has 3.00 ERA and 0.50 WHIP while earning three saves and delivering no walks and six Ks over six innings. Cody Carroll struggled in both of his games over the last week (three runs and seven baserunners over 1.2 innings with one strikeout). His failure was tied to five walks. After throwing the ball well for four games (no runs over 4.2 innings with five Ks), the Red Sox drilled Evan Phillips for four runs and four baserunners over 1.1 innings.

Kansas City Royals

The Cardinals drilled Wily Peralta for three runs, and four baserunners over one inning in a none save situation on August 12th. Over his last ten games, Peralta has 3.86 ERA and 0.86 WHIP while converting all five his saves chances. Tim Hill didn’t allow a run over his last five innings with three hit and five Ks. Kevin McCarthy struggled over his last 11 games (4.97 ERA over 12.2 innings with six Ks).

Milwaukee Brewers

Corey Knebel has officially pitched his way out of the ninth inning after struggling in three of his last five games (six runs and ten baserunners over five innings with nine Ks). Joakim Soria would be the natural option, but he landed on the DL this week with a leg injury. The most sense for the Brewers going forward would be to use their best arm to close. That would be Josh Hader. Over the last week, Josh allowed two runs and four baserunners over 3.1 innings with three Ks while earning a save and a loss. Hader has a 1.50 ERA and 0.75 WHIP over 12 innings with 19 Ks since the All-Star break. Jeremy Jeffress hasn’t allowed a run over his last seven innings with ten Ks putting him in the mix for saves as well.


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Minnesota Twins

The Twins traded away Fernando Rodney over the last week. Addison Reed and Trevor Hildenberger have no real upside in saves going forward in Minnesota with both players showing minimal upside. Reed allowed one run over his last 2.2 innings with one K since returning from the DL. Addison has been brutal over his last 6.1 innings (12.79 ERA and 2.05 WHIP). Hildenberger has been worthless over his last 4.2 innings (nine runs and 12 baserunners). Taylor Rogers hasn’t allowed a run over seven innings with no walk and 11 Ks. Trevor May has been excellent in his last four games (no runs over 3.2 innings with no walks and six Ks) putting in the mix for saves in Minnesota.

Texas Rangers

Jose Leclerc improved his scoreless streak to seven innings with two hits, nine Ks, and two saves. Leclerc has 0.96 ERA over his last 18.2 innings with 28 Ks. Corey Gearrin gave up one run over his last 6.1 innings with one K. Chris Martin allowed four runs and five hits over his last 2.1 innings with one.

Washington Nationals

The Nationals’ bullpen has become a disaster since Sean Doolittle landed on the DL. Kelvin Herrera and Ryan Madson pitched their way to the disable last over the last week. Herrera has a shoulder issue while trending in the right direction for now. I don’t like the direction of Madson’s back injury. Greg Holland was acquired over the last week to stop the bleeding in the bullpen hopefully. Holland didn’t allow a run over his last four innings in the majors with four Ks after a poor start to the 2018 season with St. Louis. Justin Miller struggled in his last two games (three runs, four hits, and two home runs over two innings) to pitch himself out of save consideration. Washington wants to give Koda Glover the first chance as saves after calling him up from AAA (two runs over eight innings with ten Ks and two saves). In his first three games in the majors, Glover allowed one run over 1.2 innings with no Ks. Tough call all around as it is going to be a work in progress over the next couple of weeks for saves.

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About Shawn Childs 970 Articles
Shawn Childs has been a high stakes Fantasy baseball and football player since 2004 where he had success in his first season (three titles and $25,000 in winnings). In early years of the high stakes market in Fantasy baseball, he was ahead of the curve in player evaluation, draft value, and free agent bidding setting up four top-five finishes in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. He has four AL-only Auction titles, one NL-only title, and five Main Event titles plus an overall title in 2012 at RTFBC (netted $10,000). This success led to an induction into the NFBC Baseball Hall of Fame. His success in the high stakes market led to a career in providing Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football content. On the football side, he’s competed and won in all different formats – auctions, draft championship, main events, and high-dollar leagues. He won 2nd place overall in the 2014 Most Accurate Salary Cap Expert contest at FantasyPros. As a dual-sport player, it was natural to transition to the daily games where he is a “swing for the fences type of guy.” Childs has appeared in one FanDuel NFL Live Final and one DraftKings NFL Live Final, a season-ending tournament which led to a couple of chances to win over $1,000,000.